Photo by Geoff Charles Wikimedia Commons. He was no calculating machine. His dad was a miner and the poor working class family in which Bevan grew up gave him first-hand experience of the problems of . It was around this time that he first "reject[ed] his chapel upbringing" and became an atheist. Winston Churchill, the target of numerous diatribes from Bevan during his career, commented that Bevan was "one of the few members that I will sit still and listen to". Here you can learn about the life and work of Aneurin (Nye) Bevan (1897-1960), founder of Britain's National Health Service and one of the Labour movement's greatest orators and thinkers. [68], Conservative opposition of the National Health Service scheme feared that the sudden access to free health care would be overrun. Bevan died from stomach cancer in 1960 at the age of 62. Along with this, the Medical Practices Committee was to oversee the distribution of GP practices a proposal which the previous Coalition Minister had withdrawn after opposition from the British Medical Association. It was Aneurin Bevan, the Minister of Health in the UK from 1945 to 1951, who started the NHS in 1948. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [42], In August 1939 came the MolotovRibbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact between the Nazi and Soviet governments that shocked democratic governments around the world. Soon, thereafter became an activist and initially, a supporter of syndicalism. [105] After the 1955 general election, Attlee retired as Labour leader. Top 15 Things to do Around the Eiffel Tower, 10 Things to Do in Paris on Christmas Day (2022), 10 Things to Do in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. [12] In Parliament, he became noticed as a harsh critic of those he felt opposed the working man and woman. [12], During the Second World War he was one of the main leaders of the left in the Commons, opposing the wartime Coalition government. [40] When the government introduced voluntary national service in December 1938, Bevan argued that Labour should demand the nationalisation of the armaments industry, support the democratic government of Spain and sign an Anglo-Soviet pact in return for its support. Bevan was as critical of Nasserist Egypt's seizure of the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 as he was of the subsequent Anglo-French military response. He agreed to serve as shadow foreign secretary under Gaitskell. Aneurin Bevanwas selected as the Labour Partys parliamentary candidate for Ebbw Vale for the 1929 General Election. Inspired by the Tredegar Medical Aid Society in his hometown in South Wales, Bevan led the campaign for a National Health Service to provide medical care free at point-of-need across the UK, regardless of wealth. [63] Having been a member of the Cottage Hospital Management Committee around 1928 and serving as chairman in 192930, Bevan had received an insight into the management of health services by local authorities, which proved to be a bedrock of his work in founding the National Health Service.[48]. [4] Aneurin Bevan attended Sirhowy Elementary School, where he achieved little. Bevan shared a liberal ideology and was additionally a supporter of the Liberal party that had a change of ideology to socialism after reading Robert Blatchfords in the Clarion. [117] His last speech in the House of Commons, in the debate of 3 November 1959 on the Queen's Speech,[118] referred to the difficulties of persuading the electorate to support a policy which would make them less well-off in the short term, but more prosperous in the long term. The Gaitskellites typically won most of the battles inside Parliament, but Bevanism was stronger among local Labour activists. While this was not an insignificant achievement: the 850,000 homes built in the four years immediately after the war ended was the biggest housing programme ever introduced,[78] Bevan's rate of house-building was seen as less of an achievement than that of his Conservative (indirect) successor, Harold Macmillan, who was able to complete some 300,000 new homes a year as Minister for Housing in the 1950s. [61], The free National Health Service was paid for directly through public money. David Bevan was born in Tredegar but his family had originally hailed from Carmarthenshire, and he followed his own father into the mines, starting work at 5:30am each day and returning home late in the evening. He was not a cold-blooded rationalist. Bevan was critical of the leadership of the British Army, which he felt was class bound and inflexible. Macmillan noted that despite being a "controversial figure" during his career, Bevan's death had seen an outpouring of genuine "admiration and affection". Aneurin Bevan Facts: Aneurin Bevan was a Welsh Labour politician widely considered the architect of the National Health Service. Bevan first worked as a miner during his teens where he became involved in local miner's union politics. Bevan was actually against British membership of the Common Market. His wage of 5 a week was paid by the members of the local Miners' Lodge. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Throughout World War II he was a vigorous critic of Winston Churchills coalition government but was equally critical of his own party. Aneurin Bevan, byname Nye Bevan, (born November 15, 1897, Tredegar, Monmouthshire [now in Blaenau Gwent], Walesdied July 6, 1960, Chesham, Buckinghamshire), controversial figure in post-World War II British politics and one of the finest orators of the time. On his return to South Wales he struggled to find work, remaining unemployed for nearly three years before gaining employment as a union official, which led to him becoming a leading figure in the 1926 general strike. [106] Bevan's remark that "I know the right kind of political Leader for the Labour Party is a kind of desiccated calculating machine" was assumed to refer to Gaitskell, although Bevan denied it (commenting upon Gaitskell's record as Chancellor of the Exchequer as having "proved" this). Get time period newsletters, special offers and weekly programme release emails. [2] He was a member of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion and wrote his own poems, one of which won an inter-chapel eisteddfod. We may all come from different walks of life but we have one common passion - learning through travel. [50], Bevan was subject to further disciplinary action in 1944, when he deliberately voted against Labour's stance on new defence regulations. [7], Bevan became a well-known local orator and was seen by his employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, as a troublemaker. [15] Apart from a six-week period as a labourer for Tredegar Council, he did not find work until 1924 and his employer, the Bedwellty Colliery, closed down ten months later. Bevan attended the local school, where he was deeply shy because of a severe stammer that he developed as a child. In its early stages this proved true, as the service went vastly over budget in its inaugural year, and Attlee was forced to make a radio address to the nation in an attempt to limit the strain on the system. Aneurin Bevan, byname Nye Bevan, (born November 15, 1897, Tredegar, Monmouthshire [now in Blaenau Gwent], Walesdied July 6, 1960, Chesham, Buckinghamshire), controversial figure in post-World War II British politics and one of the finest orators of the time. The True Tale of Wales Legendary Hay Castle, 8 Formidable Fighters of the Hellenistic Period, Operation Unthinkable: Churchills Postwar Contingency Plan, The Pirates Code: Laws and Life Aboard Ship, How the Island of Rhodes Overcame a Superpower, Historical Trips - Book your next historical adventure, 10 Must-See Medieval Landmarks in England, Join Dan Snow for the Anniversary of the D-Day Landings, Lost Literature: Why Most English Texts Didnt Survive the Middle Ages, The Legacy of Hal 9000: How Science Fiction Depictions of AI Have Changed Over Time. [6] He worked at the butcher's for several months before leaving school, instead working in the local Ty-Trist Colliery. There he earned around ten shillings per week with most going to his parents to help support the family. [5] Bevan also joined the Tredegar branch of the South Wales Miners' Federation and became a trade union activist: he was head of his local Miners' Lodge at 19 years of age. The manager of the colliery found an excuse to get him dismissed. This is often quoted as "I stuffed their mouths with gold". [62] This system proved so popular that 20,000 people supported the organisation during the 1930s. [45][by whom? [90] Bevan received unanimous support for his actions from his local Labour constituency leaders. Photo by University of Liverpool Faculty of Health & Life Sciences from Liverpool, United Kingdom Wikimedia Commons. KidzSearch Safe Wikipedia for Kids. After a Labour landslide victory in 1945, Clement Attlee appointed Bevan Minister of Health, with a remit that also covered housing, given the severe post-war shortage. Bevan then endured another year of unemployment, the family surviving on his sister's wages, when his unemployment benefit was stopped due to her income, and his father's sick pay. From 1940 to 1945 he was editor of the independent Socialist Tribune. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Perhaps the greatest and certainly one of the most controversial of Labour Party politicians, Bevan was born in Tredegar, a miner's son in a dissenting family. No falsity must touch him once he is no longer available to defend his views. If we are going to appeal to force, if force is to be the arbiter to which we appeal, it would at least make common sense to try to make sure beforehand that we have got it, even if you accept that abysmal logic, that decadent point of view.We are in fact in the position today of having appealed to force in the case of a small nation, where if it is appealed to against us it will result in the destruction of Great Britain, not only as a nation, but as an island containing living men and women. Photo by Duncan from Leicestershire, UK Wikimedia Commons. In his biography of Bevan, John Campbell wrote, "Bevan's impetuous temperament, undiplomatic tone and reputation as an extreme left-winger combined to make the Foreign Office seem the last place a prudent Prime Minister would think of putting him at any time. He first became an MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929. [98], Out of office, Bevan soon exacerbated the split within the Labour Party between the right and the left which weakened the party in the 1950s. [88][89] Two other ministers, John Freeman and Harold Wilson, resigned at the same time. [34] Bevan was readmitted to the party on 20 December 1939,[35] after agreeing "to refrain from conducting or taking part in campaigns in opposition to the declared policy of the Party".[36][37]. They have offended against every principle of decency and there is only one way in which they can even begin to restore their tarnished reputation and that is to get out! The facts, figures and quotes that shaped the history of the National Health Service . Use the tabs above to learn about Nye Bevan's life, work and ideas, as well as the history of the NHS. We can't allow OUR NHS, built on the working class medical society model to fall to corporate greed. He was the sixth of ten children born to Phoebe and David Bevan, of whom only eight survived infancy and only six to adulthood. In one of his most noted speeches made against Churchill, he railed that the prime minister "wins debate after debate and loses battle after battle". [12] Churchill would later label Bevan "a squalid nuisance". 11. This made him join the Independent Labour Party. [40] Bevan now called unsuccessfully for a Popular Front against fascism under the leadership of the Labour Party, including even anti-fascist Tories. In 1934, he married fellow MP Jennie Lee, who was described as more left-wing than Nye. He became minister of labour in January 1951 but resigned from the government the following April in protest against the rearmament program, which necessitated sharp cutbacks in social expenditures. Aneurin Bevan was born on November 15, 1897, in Tredegar in Wales. He grew up steeped in the traditions of Welsh miners radicalism; self-help organizations, trade unionism, religious dissent, and socialism. [14], Upon returning home in 1921, he found that the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company refused to re-employ him. Reciting long passages by William Morris with the help of an elocution tutor, Bevan gradually began to overcome the stammer that he had since childhood. Labour Party deputy leader Herbert Morrison complained that Bevan's attack had backfired, for his words "did much more to make the Tories work and vote than Conservative Central Office could have done". Bevan was largely responsible for the distribution of strike pay in Tredegar and the formation of the Council of Action, an organisation that helped to raise money and provide food for the miners. He was readmitted in November, the same year after he agreed to desist from involving himself in campaigns that opposed the declared policy of the Party. Indeed, these factors, exacerbated by post-war restrictions on the availability of building materials and skilled labour, collectively served to limit Bevan's achievements in this area. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aneurin-Bevan, British Broadcasting Corporation - Biography of Aneurin Bevan, Spartacus Educational - Biography of Aneurin Bevan. He became a well-known local orator, and was regarded with suspicion by his employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company. The statue of Aneurin Bevan (1897-1960) by the late Robert Thomas on Queen Street Cardiff. But the lowest paid a tax rate of 1%, up from 0.2% in 1938, the middle income brackets paid 14% to 26%, up from 10% to 18% in 1938, the higher earners paid 42%, up from 29%, and the top earners 77%, up from 58% in 1938. multi-national defence organisation in Asia and the Pacific, subsequent Anglo-French military response, Political history of the United Kingdom (1945present), "Aneurin Bevan, stormy petrel of the Labour left", "Dying father inspired Nye Bevan's NHS dream", "Britain's near-brush with Fascism: The politician who rooted for Hitler", "Play tells the inspiring story of political couple Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee", "How Jennie Lee helped Aneurin Bevan shape political change", "70 years of the NHS: How Aneurin Bevan created our beloved health service", "Let Us Face the Future: A Declaration of Labour Policy for the Consideration of the Nation", "NHS 70: Aneurin Bevan Day celebrations in Tredegar", "Housing owned by the people for the people Nye would have approved", "Bevan's speech to the Manchester Labour rally", "Major John Freeman: Soldier who became an MP, diplomat and broadcaster best known for his series of interviews, Face to Face", "In Place of Fear A Free Health Service 1952", "Mr. Bevan and Others Awarded 2,500 Each", "Did you know NHS founder Aneurin Bevan lived in Bucks?
Sky Retention Phone Number, Sherbadough Strain Indica Or Sativa, Cost Of Gallbladder Surgery With Medicare, Michael Zegen Sopranos, Articles OTHER
Sky Retention Phone Number, Sherbadough Strain Indica Or Sativa, Cost Of Gallbladder Surgery With Medicare, Michael Zegen Sopranos, Articles OTHER